Imagine trying to climb up a mountain laden with two heavy suitcases, all your belongings wrapped around your neck and a bucket of water perched precariously on your head. You wouldn’t get very far, would you! That’s just what it’s like trying to achieve your goals and ambitions weighed down with life clutter.

Whether it’s emotional, mental or physical, life clutter gets in the way of our true potential, preventing the clarity required to recognize opportunity as it arises. It could be emotional baggage from a previous business venture that went wrong and left you feeling like a failure or a comment from childhood when a teacher told you you’d never achieve anything. Or it could be mental clutter, the daily flood of thoughts about your marriage, job or endless lists of tasks you need to achieve that go round and around in your head. Or physical clutter could be blocking your potential, from a desk that’s full of unfilled papers or three years of back taxes that still haven’t been filed or sent off.

Whatever your life clutter, it’s important to free yourself of all this baggage. If you don’t, you’re limiting the infinite amount of wonderful experiences and events that are waiting just around the corner to enter your life and help you achieve your dreams and maximize your true potential.

Clear Your Physical Space
One of the easiest ways to begin to declutter your life is to work on your physical space. If you’re trying to manifest your goals surrounded by piles of papers, drawers that won’t close properly and a mountain of files hidden underneath your desk, this clutter not only impacts on efficiency but can also create mental barriers to your success. Many people get into the habit of hoarding endless papers, memories and unused items that have no purpose other than holding onto previous experiences.

The key to decluttering your physical space is to pick an area in your office or at home and set a target to deal with the clutter for 20 minutes per day. The mountains of paperwork may seem like an uphill battle, but by allocating a small amount of time everyday to achieve a clutter free work and personal space, the sense of liberation and freedom will be overwhelming once the job is done.

Buy yourself a shredder to get rid of old bank statements, aged tax forms and files you no longer need. Recycle all your old appliance manuals for equipment long since replaced. With the endless hoards of items you no longer use, sit down and ask yourself two questions: do I actually like these things and do I really need them?

By having a physical cleanse and releasing the clutter of the past, you’ll find an immense sense of freedom both mentally and emotionally.

Cleanse Your Mind of Clutter
Two of the prime causes of mental clutter are avoidance and procrastination. Your brain can become bogged down and your mental capacity restricted with lingering thoughts of endless tasks that need doing but you never complete or even attempt. As our mind wanders uncontrolled and focuses on everything we have to do and get done, we end up setting unachievable mental lists of jobs that should not be our primary focus. This constant “mental chatter” can cause tiredness and exhaustion, draining your energy and blocking your path to success.

Added to this there’s the endless emotional anguish and pain many of us put ourselves through on a day to day basis. We deliberate constantly over how our peers perceive us or what our loved ones are thinking, often creating strong mental barriers to seeing our goals clearly.

Clearing out mental and emotional clutter helps to quiet the mind and achieve focus and a sense of calm. One of the first steps to reaching mental clarity is to write down a short-term goal list every week, setting yourself realistic targets that can be achieved. Rather than allowing your mind to wander and create ambitious lists of everything that needs doing all at the same time, by setting realistic goals each week you can prioritize the essentials, preventing sleepless nights and endless worrying about the small jobs. Otherwise if you’re constantly stressed this can reduce your productivity and leave you feeling despondent and without direction – not a good mindset for achieving your goals!

Sit down and really think about what actually needs doing. Do you really need to paint the spare bedroom this week? Does the shed really need cleaning out today? Work out what you can realistically achieve and make sure you set aside some time for relaxation and quality time with your loved ones.

Clearing your emotional baggage is a task that requires constant work and even more dedication. However if you can release yourself from the pain of emotional anguish and constant worrying about what other people think then this creates the space and peace in your mind to focus and dedicate yourself to manifesting the life you truly desire.

One of the first steps to releasing your mind of emotional pain is to analyze the way you think. Byron Katie is one of the greatest teachers of thought analysis, through her groundbreaking program, The Work. She believes that if we let our minds wander aimlessly, giving space for unquestioned thoughts to run wild we can never achieve emotional and mental freedom. Katie’s work centers on writing down thoughts that cause stress in our life and questioning whether they are really true. She focuses on how the way we think about ourselves and others can have such a powerful impact on our manifestations of success. For example, in her book Question Your Thinking, Change the World she says:

“There is no way you can’t have the best business on this planet. No one stops you but you – that’s the only possibility. Your employees aren’t responsible for your success – you are.”

Once we take responsibility for our path to success and get rid of our physical, emotional and mental baggage along the way this clears the route to achieving our dreams and removes the barriers that could be preventing our goals from becoming reality.